Kaylin's Application
1. Assume we've never even heard of your show/movie/game/book/comic/play (known as 'canon' from now on). Please explain it to us.: *
Okay, sit back and take a breath because this is going to take a bit. So… this book is mainly set in the city of Elantra and the fiefs surrounding it. The fiefs are mainly lawless places, ruled by and named after a fieflord - who generally seems to care very little about the people within his domain. There are extremely dangerous beasts, called Ferals, who live in the fiefs and roam the streets after dark, killing anyone foolish enough to be out and not fast enough or strong enough to get away. Kaylin lived in the fief of Nightshade till she was 13, then fled to the fief of Barren where she lived for six months before being sent to Elantra ( to kill the Hawklord, but that’s another part of the story), and Elantra is where she currently resides.
Now… There are six main species in Elantra and its surrounds, namely Dragons, Barrani, Aerians, Leontines, the Tha’alani, and humans. Humans you can figure out all on your own, it’s the others who require some explanation.
Dragons are indeed much like the dragons of legend, except that these are forbidden by the law of the Imperial Emperor of Elantra - a dragon himself - to take their dragon form within his city without his permission on pain of death. Lots of things are on pain of death with the dragons for they are easily offended and quick to anger. They appear in human form with a solidness and weight about them which is pretty impressive. Their eyes also change color to reflect their mood with golden being pleased (and almost never seen - at least not around Kaylin) all the way through the dangerous orange and ready-to-kill red. They make up and live in the Imperial Court, though there are only a few of them, and are Very Serious about etiquette and the proper way of doing things. This is partially because if everyone follows the rules, they are less likely to become offended and eat the offending party. Or you know, breathe fire on them or their belongings which the dragons can do even in human form. Most of them can also do magic. Oh yes, and they are Immortals. Their language is nearly impossible for anyone not Dragon to speak and is pretty near eardrum-shattering loud.
The Barrani as described seem much the way the elves from the Lord of The Rings movies appeared - tall and perfectly beautiful and absolutely graceful - except even more so. They all have long black hair and are very hard to tell apart unless you know them well. Again, they have eyes which reflect their mood, with green being mostly safe and the varying shades of blue heading from dangerous into about to kill you. They have very little sense of humor and are more than willing to kill off even members of their own family for their political aspirations, where political is tied up with their convoluted caste system and seriously, I’d have to write my own book to really go into all the depth needed to explain all the convolutions in each of the races, particularly the Barrani. Most of them live in the High Halls, which is in the center of Elantra, but not exactly part of it and not directly under the rule of the Emperor exactly. (Look, there were three, or maybe four Dragon/Barrani wars and the Barrani came out on the bottom, so they try and stay out of each other’s way, okay?) They are also Immortals. They have at least two languages High Barrani and Low Barrani. Kaylin is often advised to speak in High Barrani because the language is so specific that it is almost impossible to accidentally insult someone in it. (She still manages.)
The Aerians are much like humans, except, well, they have wings and can fly. They are not Immortal, but do have their own language, Aerian. They live in aeries built into the sides of cliffs. Phew, that was easy.
On to the Leontines. As one may guess from the name, these are lion like humans, complete with mane and fur and claws and other such lion-like abilities. They live in their own quarter are strongly matriarchal with each pride - called a Pridlea - generally having a number of wives - chosen by the other wives. Marcus, Kaylin’s sergeant in the Hawks (more on them shortly) is the only Leontine serving in the Halls of Law. And as dangerous as he appears to the people there, he’s considered a little something of a wimp for being able to manage to not lose it and rip out the throats of all the pesky annoying others he has to deal with there. They can think what they like, everyone else thinks he’s quite dangerous, including the carpenters who regularly have to replace the desks he ruins with his claws. They speak Leontine which involves an awful lot of growling as one might guess. (Kaylin has been all but adopted by Marcus’ Pridlea, not that it cuts her much slack in dealing with Marcus.) They are also not Immortal.
Now the Tha’alani, whom I totally left out when I first started this, yikes! They look mostly humanoid except that they have stalks on about a third of their forehead. They can touch people with those stalks and communicate mind-to-mind. They can also forcibly extract memories and information from people that way, though it is very uncomfortable for them to do so and only the strongest of their race can handle the trauma of dealing with that sort of thing for long. Within their own compound they have a sort of group memory/mind called the Tha’alan which they are always connected to and through that to one another. Because their minds are always open to one another there is no lying, cheating, jealousy, etc. Even things that most races would consider private are very public there, including sex. This, understandably, makes contact with the other races - the Deaf, as they refer to them - very confusing and painful. The other races, understandably, are fearful of these beings who can read their deepest darkest secrets - and Kaylin perhaps hates and fears them more than anyone else.
Magic is quite commonplace here, though modern technology is not. Some things such as instant communication are done through enchanted mirrors - which can also record messages for the mirror owner to play when they arrive home, record what we’d think of as audio and video and store such until it is called up, much as we might call up information on a computer server or internet - depending on the type of Record and where they are stored. Living conditions are more like those in the Middle Ages, many do not have running water and there is no electricity - though there are magical lights which you can buy. People travel by foot generally in the city, though there are also carriages and horses. Clothes are still made and mended by hand and with no electricity or refrigeration, food is bought regularly at the marketplace - although again, there are things such as enchanted baskets which can keep your food from spoiling for extended periods of time. Doors are usually locked with magical wards which you must use your handprint to unlock.
There are three main types of magic users: The Imperial Mages (reporting to the Emperor), The Arcanum (kind of a dark arts, barely within the law group that everyone seems to hate and distrust), and the low level magic users or outright frauds down on Elani street who offer fortune telling and well-wishing and love potions and such. And hair regrowth - there’s a lot of mention of people selling potions or spells to grow hair, heaven (or rather Michelle Sagara) only knows why.
Kaylin works for the Hawks which is one of the three branches of the law. The Hawks are sort of the police force. They walk a regular beat, deal with missing persons, respond to and investigate crimes. The Hawks are ruled by the Hawklord, Lord Grammayre (an Aerian) - yes the one Kaylin was sent to assassinate back when she was 13, we’re getting to that part. The Swords are more the peacekeepers, the warriors of the group. The Wolves are more the black ops type. They track down criminals and are given permission to act even outside the boundaries of Elantra. Their directive is often to kill the offending party rather than bring them back.
That’s sort of the briefest of overviews, but it is such an incredibly complex and beautifully deep created world that you are literally learning more about it through every book.. I’d link you to the Wiki entry for more information except there isn’t one or really any web-based information other than Michelle Sagara’s site which only has the info from the back cover of the books, and some conflicting reviews (which range from best books ever!!!! to stupidest books ever!!!!!).
2. Now onto your character. Please tell us about them. Appearance, personality, how they react to others in general and where they fit into the canon you explained above. Describe the character to us so we can get an idea of who's joining the community.:
*Caution: There are some trigger warnings here.
Kaylin Neya was born in the fief of Nightshade. No, that’s not entirely correct. Elianne was born in the fief of Nightshade. She didn’t become Kaylin Neya until she chose that name for herself when she was asked her name after her failed attempt at assassinating the Hawklord. (Yes, that’s coming, I swear.) But for our purposes, I’m still going to call her Kaylin through her early history. She lived with her mother in poverty through the first years of her life. A boy named Severn began living with them when Kaylin was still little. He was five years older than Kaylin. Kaylin’s mother died of disease when Kaylin was five years old and from then on she and Severn were on their own, squatting in old buildings and doing whatever they needed to to make a living - including stealing when necessary, though Severn tried to shield Kaylin from this as much as possible. He was her safety and home in this dangerous world. When she was eight they ended up taking on - at Kaylin’s demand, a young homeless child named Steffi, who was just a year younger than Kaylin. A year later they took in Jade, about two years younger than Kaylin. They became almost like Kaylin and Severn’s children - and that’s how Kaylin thought of them.
The year she was 10 rune-like marks began appearing on her body, Severn and the girls could actually see them writing themselves on her arms. They went from her wrists up to her elbows as well as her inner thighs and her back. Shortly after that children across the fief began being found dead with similar marks on them that had appeared just as mysteriously. One body was found every month. About six months into this Kaylin found a small boy who’d been thrown off a cart, she went to him and found that she somehow knew what was wrong with him and could heal him. Severn made her hide this ability as well as the marks on her body, knowing that someone might take her away from him and use her for their own purposes if they knew.
The killings went on for three years and the marks on her body changed, though she wasn’t aware of it at the time. Severn disappeared for a day. When he returned he was frightened and asked her all sorts of questions about her marks. Then three days before another killing was suspected, he sent her out for food and when she returned he had killed Steffi and Jade. She knew she couldn’t kill him, so she ran - never knowing why he had killed them. Turns out he did it to save her life, save the girls from a great deal of torture before death, and incidentally save the world, but all he was concerned about was saving Kaylin.
Anyway, she fled across the fief border to the fief of Barren, where she was discovered by Morse - one of Barren’s enforcers. She was a scrawny little 13 year old, but Morse saw something in her, probably because when asked what she wanted Kaylin replied that she wanted to learn to kill a man - namely Severn (when he shows up in the first book she does immediately try to kill him). Morse took her in, trained her and soon had her doing assassination jobs for the fieflord, Barren. After her first failure to kill someone Barren raped her and continued to do so whenever he chose for the next 4 or 5 months until he sent her to Elantra to kill the Hawklord. By that time she was filled with self-loathing, guilt, and a sense of worthlessness.
Morse didn’t want her to attempt the assassination of the Hawklord stating that she wasn’t ready. A part of Kaylin knew she wasn’t ready, knew she would fail and be killed, and just didn’t care. So, she made the attempt. She lowered herself through the opening dome above his office - as an Aerian he wanted easy access to the sky. She attempted to attack him and was quickly and easily stopped. She sat hopelessly in a chair until a Tha’alani, Garadin, arrived to read her mind and determine who had sent her and why and what she knew about the marks on her arms. If she had let him read her it would have been painless, but in her fear - and desire to keep the ugly parts of herself hidden - she fought back and her screaming ‘echoed in the Tower long after Garadin had released the girl’.
He told the Hawklord that she understood nothing about the marks and that she feared them. He also said that even if Kaylin had had the capability that she would still have failed to kill the Hawklord and that she loathed herself for the deaths she had caused. He also felt that her marks were very dangerous (they glowed through his entire investigation). The Hawklord said that his instincts said she could be useful to the Halls of Law and that while she was only 13 now, she would not always be 13. Garadin said that he’d have to be careful. If the Hawklord forced her to kill, he’d lose her as she would lose what very little sense of self or hope she still possessed. He also said that if he gave her something to lose that she would fight with everything she had to defend it.
At that point the Hawklord more or less dumped her in Marcus’s lap, saying he should introduce her to the duties and training of the Hawks - as well as arranging lessons for basic skills as she was unable to read or write and had received no education, of course, in the fiefs. His secretary, Caitlin, was in charge of finding her a place to stay. She is described at this time as having ‘a quiet - and deep - sense of grey despair that permeated her every movement’.
In her first days there she became involved in a case where children had been killed and it was first discovered that she could see certain types of magical sigils and, in fact, see magic when it was being performed, although she didn’t know how and couldn’t necessarily control it. She ended up being taken under the wing of two Barrani Hawks and through them semi-involved in the investigation - during the course of which she lost control of her anger when they discovered the person responsible for the children’s deaths and magically flayed him. The Barrani thought dead was dead, and as he would have been put to death, anyway, no harm done. Others including the Emperor were much more concerned about how powerful and dangerous she was. Still, they agreed to allow her to live as long as she remained under close supervision - and wore a magical golden jeweled bracer which prevented her from doing magic -, and she became more or less the official ‘mascot’ of the Hawks until she was legally old enough to become an official Hawk.
During this time she became a regular visitor/helper at the Foundling’s Hall, having an affinity for orphaned children. She came to know and be considered almost a part of Marcus’s Pridlea - and is often referred to as ‘Kitling’ by Teela and Tain, the two Barrani who took her on originally, as well as Marcus’ wives and the Leontine female who runs the Foundling’s Hall. She also began helping at the Midwife's Guild as she could use her healing abilities to bring mother and baby through dangerous births. For this she needed to remove the bracer, often leaving it wherever it fell. Because it was magic it always found its way back to the Hawklord. He has officially forbidden her to use her magic or remove the bracer, but exceptions are made for such things - as well as times during investigations when it may come in useful.
The Hawks basically raised her and taught her everything she knows and to some extent, even at the beginning of the first book when she’d been a full-fledged Hawk for two years, they still think of her as a child and more a mascot than anything else.
Which explains why they tolerate some of the more difficult aspects of her personality. For one, she is always late. For her, she feels that ‘morning’ should start sometime around noon. And because she is often called away in the middle of the night on emergencies for the Midwife’s Guild, she often has had very little sleep when she reports in. She has a hard time not blurting out whatever she is thinking and will ask questions of anyone and everyone, despite the trouble it gets her into. She’ll bet on almost anything - and usually loses, which may be why she is always perpetually out of money before the end of the month arrives. Oh, and she absolutely *loves* swearing, particularly in other languages and thinks that swearing is actually the best part of any language. It bothers her to no end that there are no swear words in Barrani and that even if there are swear words in Dragon she’ll never be able to say them.
She eats very little partially because she’s always late or forgets to buy food at the market - or it’s closed when she’s done with work - and partially because of the perpetually out of money thing. She hates magic because it is quite literally painful for her to be around it - opening the magical doors wards is not only immensely painful, but also often makes her arm go numb. The markings on her body often glow in the presence of magic and also will itch or burn, depending on how strong the magic is. At times they have burned powerfully enough that they burned through her clothes.
She is very bright, though she doesn’t realize it and failed most of the classes she took - except those that she felt were relevant. Which is why she speaks at least five languages well - Leontine, Aerian, High and Low Barrani, and Elantran (the common tongue) - and can recite pretty much any law, chapter and verse. Ask her about history or interspecies relationships and she’ll just stare at you. She passed everything she was told she had to pass to be a Hawk and pretty much nothing else. She doesn’t think much of herself, but is hugely proud of being a Hawk. They are the family that she has made for herself in Elantra. They gave her a purpose and a reason for living, and, in her mind, a way to make up for some of what she did and couldn’t do when she lived in the fiefs. Justice, with a capital J, is hugely important to her. She is very stubborn and determined to do the right thing and make sure Justice is served and has an extremely hard time letting go of things if she feels they should be dealt with. She also often finds a way around the rules to help others or again, see that Justice is done.
New people intrigue her - unless they’re dragons or Tha’alani or want her to do things that will take her away from her duties. She gets along well with the majority of the Hawks, all the children and people associated with the Foundling’s Hall and the Midwife’s Guild, but can be skeptical of people’s motives and is often considered downright rude with her lack of tact and questions that others might know better than to ask.
You may ask… why in all this time have I yet to describe her? I’ll tell you. In the books, we hear a great deal about what good shape she is in due to her training, about how small she is (I’d guess around 5’2), how thin she is at times due to her never remembering/having time/having money to eat, but it is not until page 397 of the sixth book that they tell us she has brown eyes. And it’s not until page 258 of the 8th book that the dark brown hair the cover art shows is actually mentioned. Inner thoughts and beliefs and fears and foibles, yes, but very little direct description. This is a link to a page with all the cover art on it and it’s about the best information you get in terms of her looks. http://michellesagara.com/series/chronicles_of_elantra Although you see her markings very clearly, in canon she keeps her arms covered pretty much at all times if she possibly can to hide them.
3. Powers! Does your character have any abilities (powers, skills, training or weapons) that go beyond what a normal person would have?: *
Kaylin has been highly trained in weapons - particularly daggers - and hand to hand combat, both armed and unarmed. She has all the training you might expect of a police or military officer, barring the use of guns, since they don’t exist - though she says she’s not so good with a sword. She also has this unspecified magical ability. She can heal pretty much anything, though it exhausts her. She did, in a rage, flay the skin from a man’s body, killing him (thus the magical bracer to prevent such things). At some point she will learn how to light a candle with her abilities as well as call and speak to all of the elements under certain highly specific circumstances - namely in the Keeper’s Garden where all the elements are kept and contained and on one occasion while traveling in what is referred to as the Otherworld. Eventually, she will be able to see the Words that make up the name of some of the Barrani - again under highly specialized circumstances and since humans don’t have that type of name, nor presumably does anyone at Fandom, it won’t be something she could do here. She does eventually end up being called the Chosen due to her marks, but it’s confusing to many people because the Chosen ones are generally never mortal. She is always aware of magic when it is being used and can often see the sigil left behind by a magic user, though she is not aware of this ability as yet. Her marks will glow in the presence of magic and will itch or burn when it is being used around her.
4. Why is your character coming to Fandom and what kind of situation are they leaving behind at home? (ie: where in the canon timeline do they come from?): *
Kaylin will come to Fandom at age 15, pre-book canon - and slightly post the canon in Cast in Moonlight, the short story which tells of her first arrival in Elantra as she attempts to assassinate the Hawklord. She will have been the ‘mascot’ for the Hawks, tagging along with them for the past year and a half. She will be being sent to Fandom by Marcus and the Hawklord and told that unless she attends Fandom High and can pass the courses required of her, she will not be allowed to become a Hawk. Since she’s not living up to her potential in Elantra, maybe this forced change will ‘encourage’ her to do better. If she is doing well, she will be permitted to return on the odd weekend and for vacations - and for emergency calls from the Midwife’s Guild.. Of course, portal travel makes her violently nauseous, but some things just have to be dealt with.
For the purposes of the game, I’m going to have Elantran be more or less equivalent to English so that she can at least talk to people and can read/write enough to get by.
5. Is there any reason that they might cause trouble to other characters in the Fandom High setting due to behavior or abilities? How would you account for that to make the character work well in a group-intensive environment?: *
Kaylin is nosy, tactless, and occasionally rude, but unless she saw someone blatantly hurting a child or doing something that would cause them to come to harm, she really wouldn’t be difficult to manage. Her magic is controlled by the bracer, which she only removes if she needs to help heal someone, so it shouldn’t be an issue.
6. Links to character/series information: *
Yeah… links to information on the character and series… Not so much. You can pick them up in a bookstore and are all available for Kindle on Amazon. The best I have is http://michellesagara.com/series/chronicles_of_elantra which has the covers and blurbs for each book.